DHAKA: Myanmar was braced on Thursday for its first talks with US and southeast Asian envoys on the migrant exodus from its shores, as Malaysia ordered search and rescue missions for thousands of boatpeople stranded at sea.

Foreign ministers Anifah Aman of Malaysia and Retno Marsudi of Indonesia were to visit Naypyidaw a day after announcing that their countries would end a much-condemned policy of turning away boatloads of starving migrants. 

The policy about-turn was welcomed by the United States, whose Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also to meet with Myanmar officials in the capital Naypyidaw, as his country said it stood ready to take in some of the migrants.

Blinken said he would raise the Myanmar government’s treatment of its Rohingya minority in the western state of Rakhine, which is widely blamed for fuelling the crisis, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1142 HRS, MAY 21, 2015
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